“You do not have to be very conservative to find him startling… How could anyone, for instance, seriously hold, as Rorty has, that “truth is what your contemporaries let you get away with,” or that “no area of culture, and no period of history, gets Reality more right than any other”? Is it really possible…
“What’s wrong with Google? Well, it’s boastful. It can’t keep itself from telling you how inconceivably fast it is. Ask it for information on Chinese archaeology and it compiles 29,400 links, adding: ‘search took 0.14 seconds.’ Please, not so pushy, Google. Sometimes I don’t feel like being reminded that Google both thinks and acts faster…
“Coalition Forces are prepared and well trained to defend themselves against chemical weapon attacks. | Your comrades and innocent Iraqi people will be victims if Saddam uses chemical weapons.” PsyOps leaflet —Leaflets Dropped 23 March 2003Information Warfare Site) And here’s an amusing satirical piece on The Wacky Iraqi: “United States Changes its Name to ‘Coalition’.”…
“My mother started keeping the list when I started the first grade. My school asked parents to keep track of what books we read as part of its reading program. She kept the list until 1977 and I’ve kept the list since I was in the fifth grade.” Eric W. Leuliette —What Have I Read…
?For many Americans, French‘smustard IS Americana. It‘sall about baseball, hot dogs, family and fun,? says Elliot Penner, president of French‘smustard. Via Dave Barry. —In Case You Were Boycotting French’s Mustard…Press Release) It’s amazing that people have time for stupid stuff like this, when there are far more important things to worry about. Similar:We Are the…
“It’s not about us, and never was. We just run an amateur news and commentary website, and sell bumper stickers to try to make ends meet (which they never do). Being “disallowed” by Google was only a minor inconvenience for us.|For a lot of people, though, it would be a much bigger problem. And it…
“Whatever anyone may say about weapons of mass destruction, or about Saddam’s savage brutality to his own people, the reason Bush can now get away with his war is that a sufficient number of Americans, including, apparently, Bush himself, see it as revenge for 9/11. This is worse than bizarre. It is pure racism and/or…
“Of course I had read reports that Iraqis hated Saddam Hussein, but this was the real thing. Someone had explained it to me face to face. I told a few journalists who I knew. They said that this sort of thing often happened – spontaneous, emotional, and secretive outbursts imploring visitors to free them from…
I’ve been cut off from the Internet almost all week, sadly reduced to switching between CNN and FOX to get differing views of the war. That’s nothing like what I’ve gotten in the last few hours I’ve been skimming the blogosphere. CNN and FOX never comment on each other. On FOX, Ollie North’s account of…
“If he starts reporting US soldiers are raping civilians and noone else reports it his authenticity becomes an issue, but so far, he’s only given plain reports of what it’s like being in Bagdad during bombing. If that’s propaganda, I think I’ll take it.” Jill Walker offers a good summary of war-related blogging links. —The…
I’ve been on a short hiatus from blogging because I spent Spring Break house-hunting in Pennsylvania. Assuming there are no glitches in the closing process, shortly after the semester ends I’ll be moving to the new house just outside of Greensburg, PA, just 6.5 miles from Seton Hill University, where I will take “a leadership…
“I sometimes wonder whether I am really being effective in my job spending half the time in e-mail, half the time on the phone, and the other half doing real work. | It’s no surprise that entrepreneurs have seen that there’s money to be made in taming this e-mail mess. The most innovative products I…
“Media note links between ‘weblogs’ and ‘Iraq’” Jorn Barger —Google: Weblog + IraqRobot Wisdom) Similar:Pluto FlybyWhen I was about 10, I wrote to NASA and…Current_EventsIf watching this clip of Punjabi dancers in Ireland doesn't make you happy, I don't know w…https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/13721…AestheticsAll the world’s an appA review of three books — The App Gener…CultureSeton Hill graduates…
“[A] growing group of military thinkers is questioning the U.S. military’s reliance on gadgetry.|U.S. precision weapons, Predator drones, and the like were less responsible for recent victories in Afghanistan and in the first Gulf War than is generally assumed, they argue. And increasing American dependence on technology leaves U.S. troops dangerously vulnerable to low-tech attacks.”…
“This leaves two channels: Iraq TV and Shabab (youth) TV. They are still full of patriotic songs and useless ‘news’, they love the French here. We also saw the latest Sahaf show on Al-Jazeera and Iraq TV, and the most distressing minister of Interior affairs with his guns. Freaks. Hurling abuse at the world is…
“The cost to burrow down is dropping, while the price (and hassle) of erecting a skyscraper in a dense urban area just keeps rising. The breakthrough comes thanks to tunneling technologies that are now being used on huge transportation projects, like Boston’s Big Dig and Moscow’s Lefortovo highway tunnel project. Over the next 10 years…
Silly title for a news summary of a University of Pittsburgh study. The study found students who used spell- and grammar-check made more errors than students who just used their head. Of students who were asked to revise a passage without the spell checker, those with higher SAT’s did a much better job (5 errors)…
“Now that almost all of her books are out of print, however, she may be best known as the Doris Day character in the treacly 1960 film version of Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, which erases Kerr’s extraordinary literary career and morphs her into a home remodeling-obsessed, suburban stay-at-home mom. While the movie’s producers may…
Ron Zeno has posted a summary of and a few comments on Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments (Justin Kruger and David Dunning – Journal of Personality and Social Psychology). People are generally pretty bad at estimating their own performances (the people who are worst…
“Time and again the public has shown its willingness to help produce happy endings. Citizens’ use of the Amber Alert is credited with saving 47 kidnapped children. In its 15-year history, America’s Most Wanted claims viewers have helped capture 746 criminals featured on the show. | Those successes aren’t merely the result of miracles. They…